


Exit

by bbluejoseph



Series: The Joshua Tree [3]
Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Angst, DEMA (Twenty One Pilots), Dema fic, Healing, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, eyes emoji, mentions of bruises/injuries, mentions of death and peril!, not gonna come out and say that clancy is clairvoyant but, trench
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 19:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21361558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bbluejoseph/pseuds/bbluejoseph
Summary: How had he gotten those bruises on his neck?
Relationships: Josh Dun/Tyler Joseph
Series: The Joshua Tree [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1487714
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Exit

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this all in a few hours so please be kind to me. more josh pov because I enjoyed writing it last time. title from the u2 song of the same name

Tyler was alive.

Josh clung tightly to this thought, this fact, as the group made their way back to camp. The banditos were surrounding them in a small circle, a protective gesture. 

A few of the others had stayed behind at the falls. Nico had plunged from the edge, like Tyler, but he was on horseback, and it was unlikely he had been able to grab onto the cliffs. If he had truly fallen, he must be terribly injured, or, more likely, dead. 

Josh’s mind wasn’t on Nico at the moment. Josh’s mind was all on Tyler. 

He was still soaking wet, clothes hanging heavy on his body. His hands were scraped from clutching at the cliffs, and his eyes were still wide from the events that had occurred at the waterfall. But he was alive. Josh couldn’t stop staring at him. 

They held hands tightly--although, not too tightly. Josh tried to be careful about Tyler’s scrapes, although they were minor. He had been through so much in the past twenty-four hours; Josh didn’t even know what had happened to him before the confrontation mere moments ago. 

He was filled to the brim with questions for Tyler. Had Nico taken him back to the city? How had he gotten away? Where had he been, and what had he seen?

How had he gotten those bruises on his neck?

It wasn’t the time for questions. Josh was filled to the brim with protective energy; he tried to be gentle with his hand, he spoke to him in a soft voice so as not to spook him, and he shooed the other banditos off when they tried to bother him with questions.

The group was mostly quiet on the way back to camp, stunned by what they had seen. The sun was just starting to sink in the sky as they began to finally reach the security of the campfire, and the comfort of the tents.

Tyler spoke up, startling Josh from his thoughts. He blinked, having missed what he’d said. “What?”

“You’re scraped up,” Tyler repeated. He still looked nervous, and he was a bit twitchy, but his eyes were sharp and clear. “You need to see a medic.”

Josh blinked again, astounded. Tyler had fallen from a waterfall and he was still trying to put Josh first. “I think you should get looked over first, all things considered.”

“You’re worse for wear,” Tyler insisted.

‘I’ll look over both of you if you sit down and be quiet.’ Clancy stood in front of them holding a small bag over his shoulder with a cross on it. He reached out a hand and clasped it on Tyler’s shoulder for a second, saying nothing, but the message was clear. _Glad you’re safe._

_ __ _

_ __ _

They sat in the grass a little bit away from the fire, out of the smoke but close enough to use the light. Clancy checked Tyler over first, at Josh’s insistence, and bandaged the scrapes on his hands easily. The real issue was the bruising on his neck.

‘How did you get these?’ he asked, looking but not touching as Tyler tilted his head to give him a better view. 

Tyler chewed on his lip, and said nothing.

Josh put a hand on his knee, reassuring, and Clancy just shook his head. ‘There’s not a lot of treatment I can recommend. Just be careful when swallowing, and come back if you have any headaches.’

There was a lot of dirt in Josh’s scrapes. He winced when Clancy cleaned them out, squeezing Tyler’s arm, but they felt better once they were clean. 

Clancy paused in applying medicine to his arms to sign. ‘What did you do? Jump off a cliff or something?’

Josh coughed. “I mean, yeah.” 

“You ruined perfectly good clothes is what you did.” Josh looked up to see Mark, who was half smiling in his usual good-natured way. “I sent Brad and a couple others out to look for...y’know. No word yet.”

Clancy had begun putting the extra bandages back in the bag, but he paused. ‘He’s dead.’

Tyler was looking at the ground. It wasn’t confirmed, but it was clear that no one was willing to deny Clancy’s claim. 

“I’ve talked to the others, and they’re all saying the same things.” Mark rubbed the back of his neck. “But we need to hear your side of the story, Tyler. If you’re ready,” he added. “It can wait if you’re not.”

Tyler was chewing on his lip again, but he nodded. “I’m ready.”

Mark led the way through the crowd to the largest tent. There were lots of banditos standing about, talking in hushed voices. Josh could only pick out a few words; Nico and dead and Tyler. Mark pushed aside the tent flap and slipped inside.

This was the ‘meeting room’, of sorts. Many raids and rescues were planned here, and important decisions were made beneath the lamp sitting in the middle of the space. The otherwise grassy ground was covered by a large blanket, where the assembled banditos sat in a circle and talked among themselves. They quieted, however, when they saw Tyler and Josh come in.

Josh held Tyler’s hand, gingerly; an attempt at comfort. This would be rough.

They took a seat in the circle, Jenna making room for Tyler and Josh next to her. Mark nodded at Tyler, encouraging him to speak. 

He swallowed, quiet, and began.

“Nico pulled me away from the camp by my neck.”

Something sharp and painful clenched at Josh’s heart at the single sentence. A few of the others exchanged glances, some sympathetic and some shocked. Tyler went on.

“He dragged me away, and he choked me.” He stumbled over the last few words, and Josh quickly wrapped his arms around Tyler; he was cold as a stone, but he shrunk into Josh’s embrace, sheltered. “I woke up in the city.”

“You don’t remember how you got there?” Debby asked, quiet out of respect. Tyler shook his head, and she nodded for him to go on.

“He left me in my room.” He said this quietly before carrying on in a louder tone. “There was a guard in the hallway and I convinced him I needed to speak to Nico about the banditos. I don’t think he knew anything about what I did.

“I punched him,” Tyler admitted. “A couple of times. And I made a run for it.”

“You knocked out a guard?” Josh blurted, surprised.

He shook his head, almost sheepish. “I just knocked him down. I made it to the tunnels and I ran until I was too tired.”

“Brave,” Jenna said, sincere. The others murmured in agreement. 

Tyler shook his head again, but went on. “I made it into Trench, but I didn’t have a torch or anything with me, so I couldn’t see, and I got lost. I wandered around until the sun came up, and then I heard the creek, so I ran to it. That’s when you found me.”

There was quiet among the group for a moment. “You were very brave, Tyler,” Mark said, speaking for all of them. “It’s almost impossible to escape on your own.”

Tyler’s voice was quiet, but he met the eyes of the banditos. “Thank you.”

“You’re still shaking,” Josh said finally, rubbing his arm. “You need to get into some dry clothes.”

“I think we have everything we need, unless there’s something else you want to say,” Mark said. Tyler shook his head, and Josh helped him to his feet. 

The two banditos left the tent. Tyler’s eyes quickly grew wide as they stepped out into the dark, so Josh hurried them into their shared tent.

He lit the lamp within, carefully, and finally let go of Tyler’s hand, giving him a bundle of dry clothes to change into. Josh turned away as he dressed, then helped him get settled into bed before changing into some dry clothes of his own; he had almost forgotten about the temperature.

Surrounded by blankets, they clung to one another in the gentle warmth, Josh’s head tucked over Tyler’s, and Tyler’s arm cast around Josh’s waist. It had been a rough twenty four hours, but they would both recover. It would just take a little time.


End file.
